Nintendo has announced its first quarter financial results, which brought some notable headlines. The company made an operating loss, but ultimately posted a net profit; despite hardware and software business struggling overall, Nintendo had boosted its coffers by roughly 8.6 billion yen ($87.8 million / £57.7 million). It wasn't all bad, in other words, and it says much about the company that its net assets stand at 1,239,754 million Yen (up from 1,141,015 million Yen in the equivalent period last year) which equates to roughly $12.6 billion / £8.4 billion. That doesn't mean that Nintendo isn't under pressure as a business to improve and satisfy its shareholders, but it shows the war chest at its disposal is substantial enough to deal with rough times.

And these are rough times, overall. The 3DS is Nintendo's saviour at this stage, with the company even stating that the portable is now "gaining its sales momentum in the United States and Europe", a vital continuation of its enduring success in Japan. Those results have helped to bolster finances against an exceptionally weak quarter for the Wii U. No matter how you slice and dice it, or question what the "unit sales" actually represent, Nintendo is officially stating — against the same barometers that have given sales figures for multiple years in these financial reports — that there were just 160,000 systems sold in three months, between 1st April and 30th June.

And yet, Nintendo's yearly forecasts remain unchanged, therefore maintaining its ambitious unit sales predictions and projected profits. That is absolutely understandable in the case of the 3DS, showing strong sales — ahead of the last quarter but behind the equivalent Q1 of last year — in what's typically the year's least lucrative sales window, but a refusal to adjust the numbers for Wii U is a firm indication of the company's belief in the upcoming software lineup, as well as whatever promotions and surprises it has up its sleeve. We should also note that Nintendo hasn't been shy of slashing its projections in previous quarterly reports, making a habit of the practice throughout the last financial year; yet this time around it's stuck to its guns.

But as is rapidly becoming tradition here on Nintendo Life, let's really break down some of the numbers to get a better understanding of Nintendo's challenges ahead. The below figures show the Q1 sales and how much further each system has to go in the hardware and software stakes.

These figures should be considered against the context of Q1 being the least lucrative of the year, but does at least show how much key shopping seasons influence yearly sales.

Plenty of progress to come for the Wii U, clearly, but it's been the case for a number of months that Nintendo's been strategically targeting the second half of the year and early 2014; in many ways — when looking at the software releases of Q1 — this quarter was a write-off. That doesn't make it right, of course, and questions will always be asked as to how the release schedule for the system was so heavily weighted to the latter part of the year, while stagnating sales have continued to damage the console's reputation and — perhaps more importantly — its position with retailers. Retail groups surely can't be blamed for hesitancy around the system, in light of those figures, and it's up to Nintendo to assuage concerns and bring them back on board.

The Wii U situation has, naturally, drawn parallels with the early days of the 3DS. The handheld was widely tagged as "doomed" in 2011, yet is now competing at the top end of hardware charts in multiple territories, and being widely praised in the process. While a direct comparison is fraught with inconsistencies and different circumstances, let's nevertheless — just because it's interesting — compare the early sales of the Wii U to those of the 3DS in its darkest days.

Aside from the obvious discrepancies when comparing a home console with a portable system, the most telling comparison perhaps comes with the third "quarter" — accounting for the fact that the 3DS first quarter was only the launch weekend in Western territories — as it was in this period that Nintendo enacted a meaty price cut on the system. Although major titles such as Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land were yet to come in Winter 2011, existing summer releases such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (June 2011) and Star Fox 64 3D (September 2011) helped the system's fortunes alongside that drop in price. After the 2011 Holiday season the system's fortunes continued to improve, while 2013 has continued the momentum nicely; the impact of the price cut on overall sales can be debated, it's beyond question that it aided sales.

Of course, to date, there's been no suggestion of a price cut for the Wii U, yet its upcoming lineup of first-party content is bringing a substantial number of first-party titles in the coming 9-12 months, perhaps more than we saw on the 3DS in its equivalent period. From Nintendo's perspective, it clearly hopes to see the Wii U's fourth and fifth quarters showing the sort of substantial growth that we saw in the third quarter for the 3DS, but through software driven sales rather than a price cut. If we can be mischievous, however, the 3DS price cut was announced suddenly at the end of July 2011 (and enacted in mid-August), a couple of weeks after those second quarter sales given above; just because Nintendo says the option isn't on the table, doesn't mean that it won't become an option if there's enough pressure from investors or members of senior management. At the very least, Nintendo does state in its most recent report that it'll "strive to improve [Wii U] hardware profitability by reducing its costs", which means cutting manufacturing expenses as far as possible, as happened with the 3DS.

What we do see, from these results, is the extent of the Wii U's problems, but also a company still managing profits (if not operating profits, yet) and enjoying the success of the 3DS. By keeping its projections in place for another quarter, Nintendo is essentially admitting that the last three months delivered largely what it expected, or at least that's the impression it wants to give.

The next quarter will be important, of course, while Q3 — covering 1st October to 31st December — is absolutely vital for the Wii U in particular. A lot can change in a few months, especially with Nintendo.

From the web

Welsh ex-pat Tom is responsible for the day-to-day running of the site. He's the guy to thank for the generally brilliant nature of the content which massages your eyeballs on a daily basis. Also has an unhealthy obsession with all things Bowser.

@Prof_Quackton ... 10,000 sold in Europe in three months is about 100 a day or an average of two per country per day therefore, it would actually be feasible for a Nintendo representative to personally congratulate everyone who bought one.

The Wii U is doing far worse than the 3DS, so I'm not sure that's a good example to use. People always accuse me of being negative, but I think there are a lot of reasons for that right now. These figures aren't just poor, they're abysmal. 10k units in 3 months might just be the worst sales a major console has ever had. I know the North American figures for February and March were the worst since the saturn, and those were just under 40k, which looks amazing compared to the 13k or so that was being sold a month in Europe and Australia combined. People are still saying the PS3 struggled, but not like this. Nowhere near this. Go back, look up the figures. I think PS3 got bad press for selling 200k one month where it was only out in Japan and North America. Wii U couldn't even manage that figure in 3 months with the system available worldwide.

You know the funny thing though? I can easily see the Wii U being the best selling console this Christmas. PS3 and 360 will do okay, but they're winding now, and while I think PS4 and Xbox One will sell out and have great launches, they're ultimately going to have limited stock. Nintendo will almost certainly cut the Wii U's price just before the holidays, and even though I was disappointed in the casual nature of some of their big games, you're still going to have Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Super Mario 3D Land as exclusives. It won't be any kind of record breaking sales, but that should be enough to beat off two consoles coming to the end and two consoles that will be suffering stock shortages due to worldwide launches.

There was a point made a while ago by a blogger on another site regarding launches, and all 3 companies are doing this. Everyone whines so much about "no games" so now companies have started launching with a bunch of crappy ports and things just to get the game count up. They fire both barrels at launch and then have little to nothing in the production pipeline.

So we get like we have now where you don't really have much coming out for months. As it stands right now if you didn't buy a wiiU on launch there's little incentive to buy on now instead of just waiting till winter or next year when more games are out. If instead they launched with fewer games but quality games, and then had other games in the pipeline to create a steady stream of releases you'd stay in the news and give people reasons to buy it.

I know it's going to pick up this winter and a year from now quite a few people are going to be looking awful foolish. There's blame to go around for the policy, companies should know better, and people should stop counting launch games and instead look for a steady stream of quality games. I don't know why now everyone expect the selection at launch to look like a console with 6 years behind it but it really does hurt things. It would be amazing what would happen if people would sit down and think for a bit instead of being constantly in a rabid frenzy.

@Gioku not really, handheld sales are generally higher than console sales. The ds beat the ps2(best selling home console to my knowledge), and 3ds is on pace to beat it, gba sales are huge, as well as gbc and original gb. The wiiU is actually performing fairly similarly to the 3ds the only real difference is it's first big post-launch system pusher is either coming now or winter(pikmin might remain somewhat niche, whereas mario and zelda won't).

@GiokuYeah, I bought a Wii U because I like my 3DS XL, "surely since the Wii U is newer, larger, and a console, it can only be better right?" Still glad I bought it, but haven't got what I expected yet.

It needs a steep price cut. However, even if it gets one, the upcoming titles in the second half of this year are not strong enough, in my opinion. I just don't know about this system... I do love mine though, but I bought mine when it came out, so I am the exception.

should have been wii 2 without the gamepad bumping up the price. nintendo have dropped the ball in so many ways with this system it's unbelievable and despite having 'learned lessons' from the 3DS launch. they are not 'doomed' by any means, but a major shake-up and new approach will be needed to remain relevant, at least in the home console market.

You can't knock Nintendo. They know what they are doing. Due to the excess advancements in technology, the demand for new hardware/software make all of us impatient; we want instant gratification. By the year's end, Nintendo should be picking themselves up. By the way, it still hasn't been a full year since the Wii U has been out. Patience my fellow Nintendo Heads (n_n)

They must cut the price by 90 euros, and even this way they'll struggle against PS3 and PS4, they must invest in marketing and tv ads, like crazy, tv spots for every game and to show the system, and then bring bundles starting from Zelda WW HD (€. 259,90)

Price cut and aggressive marketing campaign, I find it the only way to emerge from this ugly situation, but if they really think their first party line up is strong (because it isn't with low budget games) and only count on the games they are going to cry blood

thing is the price has already been slashed at retail and nobody wants it. games will help, but their overall approach to the system has been disastrous since day one. i say this as a massive nintendo fan, but the wii U failing is totally deserved. anything that makes them rethink some of their strategies has to be a good thing.

and the holiday line-up isn't that great considering, not in terms of system selling propositions.

I don't think you can gather any optimism from these figures, but I will be curious to see if the PS3 and Xbox One will sell in big numbers long term. Obviously they look like they're going to have good launch sales, but it remains to be seen if 6 months in they'll be hitting their targets. It may suggest that the market is suffering, let alone the Wii U's woes of marketing something people actually want.

Personally I love my Wii U; but in a bad financial climate, a market being eaten into by tablets and smartphones, a tough 3 console market, and a previous system that promised early and disappointed in the long run, I can see why cusomers aren't biting.

Going to be interesting if PS4 and Xbone post launch sales figures are less than stellar – which I strongly suspect will be the case. Shame that Nintendo are finding the Wii U a hard sell as it's a wonderful machine. They really messed up with their lack of marketing though. Thankfully, they seem to be getting into gear now.

If the games are there then people will buy it, unfortunately the Wii U has had no games worth buying until recently. If it wasn't for the Monster Hunter 3 pack then I would still be holding out for a reason to buy a Wii U.

"Trimmed ports" are not system sellers, people are only going to buy 3rd party games to play alongside their Nintendo exclusives. Nintendo need to get these games out and promote them..

Well even if sales are poopiedoodles I'm still gonna get a Nintendo Wii U by the time Christmas comes by, only if there is a price cut tho. I don't think its worth the price its at now an with crappy games they have now.

I love how confident Nintendo is though. I rarely see a company so confident in their system and despite the sluggish sales of their console, they still manage to see the bright side and ultimately post a profit.

I don't see the Wii U selling 9,000,000 consoles this year. I think that's a little ambitious. But, you never know, it might happen.

the amount of bad press the wii u is getting with the bbc news site the latest one to take a pot shot at nintendo with the headline " flogging a dead horse " saying there is no point in trying to sell a dead console and recommending they release a new console. it is going to take one of the greastest comebacks of all time for nintendo to turn the wii u fortunes around because there is no public confidence in it at all and despite some great games coming out the release schedule is still barren for next year

It's not a tale of just two systems - the Wii is still outselling the Wii U, even though the Wii U includes Wii backwards compatibility. This is telling that more people are still interested in the aging Wii's better value than they are of Wii U's, and this is what Nintendo needs to fix. They need to make the Wii U more like the Wii.

@tchaten Believ it or not, there was actually an excellent article about this same topic over at IGN, with the author stating similarly solid information and key valid points, all ending in the rather positive conclusion that Nintendo itself is not in trouble, only the Wii U is.

This article itself was top-notch though, as is always the case with NintendoLife content. Great job guys.

@banacheck The problem is the world economy is totally different.. from the PS3.. and that unlike the PS3... The Wii U does not have another movie upgrade that it helps to push.. (DVD to Blu Ray) as thus is not given away for free with surround sound systems.. in actuality a lot of PS3's were given away a Blu Ray players.. or sold as Blu Ray Players.. because it would have failed as a video game system.. the same goes.. unfortunately for Wii U.. that being said after July.. I expect system sells will go up to a point that 160,000 units pushed is once every month and a half..

Yes, the console is indeed indeed in a tough spot, but if they were able to completely turn the 3DS's circumstances around, who's to say that they can't do the same with the Wii U? It's not the first time a home console has been in this position, and as history shows, in the end yhe consoles managed to end up selling tens of millions of units (looking at the 360 & PS3).

So iif you think Nintendo will rule out the Wii U after it's disastrous state, you haven't seen ehat they can do. The 3DS is all the proof you need for this. :B @PokeTune

I'm not that worried, things look bad, but Nintendo's well off enough as a company that they can weather this and once we get this Fall and Springs new games things will be even better. I just hope that we get a price drop. That's what got me to buy my 3DS, I could have cared less that Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 were coming out (which I have and love both), I bought the 3DS the day that it had a price drop.

So many of you guys are saying the Wii U will turn things around like the 3DS, but this is not the case. There are many factors that separate the Wii U and the 3DS.
Just by looking at these numbers the Wii U will not be able to bounce back from its disastrous head start from the PS4 & Xbox One.

Here are some reasons I believe the Wii U will not bounce back as to compared to the Nintendo 3DS which had impressive resurgence in the market.

1. Handhelds are clearly different from home consoles. The average family shares their home console with everyone in the house, but for handhelds each family member or individual would have to have their own 3DS to be able to experience exclusive 3DS games or to experience multiplayer with one an other. It's common to have multiple 3DS's in a home, as its common for only one Wii U in a home.

2. The Wii U has great games coming out, but I don't think it's going to save the system, The 3DS is getting Pokemon X&Y which is going to make the 3DS skyrocket in sales. You could say Super Smash brothers and Super Mario 3D World will save Wii U, they will certainly help but they will not save Wii U like how Super Smash Brothers and Super Mario Sunshine couldn't stop the GameCube from ending up in last place.

3. The 3DS also had a price drop which helped out the system when the good games started rolling out for it like Mario Kart 7.

I'm also not sure if a Price drop would even help Wii U, I remember when GameCube was dirt cheap and it still sold poorly. In all honestly Nintendo needs to come up with something quick for Wii U or this system will be the next SEGA Saturn. With E3 2013 being over their really is no hope for the Wii U unless Nintendo drops something amazing on everyone in 2014.

@BestBuck123
Nintendo has already stated that they will not be doing any pricecuts this early on, instead they are relying on heavy hitting titles and bundle deals this holiday season.
This autumn there is evidence that there will be two large updates for Wii U and 3DS that will focus on cross integration of miiverse in which each system can advertise games for the other. Nintendo will let Wii U feed off of the success of the 3DS by advertising games for Wii U on the 3DS's e-shop and the 3DS's miiverse.

@unrandomsam I think that Nintendo were actually losing money on the Gamecube until it picked up, they've pretty much made a profit on every console apart from the VB obviously and most probably Wii U.. It really isn't looking good is it?

People who are calling for a price cut right now are delusional.. Retailers all over the UK have already slashed the price far below MSRP and its still not moving.

Its the games that sell hardware.. without the Nintendo games, people are not going to buy it.... If I knew the software situation was going to be this bad, I would have waited on purchasing mine... I got the system in December thinking by spring it will have some great games.

Probably the last system I'll get in its first year on the market.... I'll wait exactly one year from now on.

And that is Nintendo's only mistake with this system. I love everything about it, minus the games drought... Off Tv Play, VC, Second screen gaming (ZombiU was delightful), YouTube, Netflix. It would be easily the best console I ever own (and I own them all) if it had the massive heavy hitting titles we expect on a Nintendo platform.

The key factor in all this is the first party games. With both 3ds and WiiU, the 1st party games that people wanted to play either wasn't there or was there but in a form or spin-off that doesn't get mass approval.

Games like Ocarina of time and star fox help drive 3ds sales and those were remakes of VC games with added features (also 20 free games or $80 off but not my point ATM) so why not the same with the Wii U with their upcoming games.

Holiday season? The xBone and PS4 are going to dominate the holiday season. I say that as someone who is unlikely to buy either system (i.e., I'm neither an MS nor Sony fanboy, I'm just being realistic). Stick a proverbial fork in the Wii U. It's done.

@Meaty-cheeky wow,talk about glass half empty! Ok first of all I agree in terms of SALES the wiiu will probably be behind the ps4/xbone,but nintendo will still make a profit. Secondly people always use sales as some kind of flame war ammo in deciding which system is best and this is just bass ackwards. Sales figures are handy in depicting the state of a company overall. E.g. If a system is selling poorly the company may pull support,but look at nintendo. They have something sony and m$ dont have. A handheld(one that sells,although the vita is also a good example in the point im making) and the important thing to look at is that nice net profit ninty have made this year,and that is off the back of a disasterous console launch! What im trying to get at is the poor sales mean nothing because as long as nintendo have the 3ds selling the wiiu will be suported with exclusive after exclusive,whick in the end will ensure the wiiu achieves iwatas promise of "critical mass"

In short never ever underestimate nintendo. They may play a strange ball game but they always pull through

@bezerker99 Don't be stupid. Nintendo is not doomed. They've got enough money to survive multiple failed consoles. The Wii U isn't doomed either. The games will come, developers will take an interest and things will pick up.

People look at the low numbers and convince themselves not to invest, because they think it'll be a poor choice, thus keeping the numbers low. I made the decision to buy a Wii U, and even though I have to wait for some games, I don't regret my decision at all. In fact, it was a much better investment than the Wii ever was, with loads more to do and I can play the games from that console.

Nintendo needs to make it a 300 for the console and 250 for the basic, that will make the other consoles look overpriced and they need to advertise the heck out of everything to get some awareness. Some people don't even know the wii u is out yet. If a mom is getting a wii owner a console for Christmas, they will see 300 and there's no way they'll pay 400-500 dollars for a other console. Also make a pro controller bundle for 320

@HaNks I disagree. The gamepad is the best part of the system! Don't get me wrong, I'd still have bought my Wii U regardless of whether it was just a Wii HD, but personally I feel the gamepad is worth every cent of that increased price and then some! If it costs Nintendo some sales in the end game, so be it. At least we the gamers get to enjoy the benefits of it. People tend to forget, bad sales numbers don't lessen our enjoyment in any way, shape or form. If the system doesn't catch on, that's too bad. Would have been nice to see a hundred million people having as much fun as I am... but I don't care if I'm the only person in the world who bought the system- you can believe I'm having the time of my life with it!

well nintendo should have seen this coming. they seen this with the wii. i don't mean the bad sales, but i mean having to do the heavy lifting. they knew that they needed to come out strong with the wii u. the name should have been different from the wii but i guess they was banking on the name to carry over, to be familiar to consumers but it backfired. you can't just talk a good game, you must show it. nintendo had the whole summer to bring out an amazing game or two for the wii u but they decided to wait until the fall and early next year. they spreading their games out to maximize game sales, im guessing thats the plan. maybe a price drop might help, but the damage has been done. the wii u won't fail but it won't be a major seller like the wii was.

Wii U has still sold more than ps3/xbox360 at the same point in their life cycle.

It really does not matter if you sell 4 million of a product in one month or its spread out evenly over the six months. The only problem has been the slow and uneven release of content which explains its slump in sales.

They are obviously aware of this and are stacking the second half the year with significant games. They will likely make up for the slow first half of the year and then some.

@FrappI still can't get over how people seem to think PS4 and Xbox1 are going to keep flying off the shelves. I still see no reason to upgrade from my PS3 as everything interesting is going to be out on that as well. People that I know that play CoD(yes it might be hated by some but it's a huge chunk of gamers) will not be playing ghost on those systems but their 360 or PS3. That's all they need right now and will have the most players online for a long time.

@SetupDisk
I agree, consoles these days seem to have a longer shelf life then ever before, the biggest competition for the Ps4 and Xbox one will be their own systems. No one will be in a rush to upgrade unless these new systems come out with more must have titles. I don't see it happening if they are available on all the systems, there is no reason to upgrade at the moment, not to mention if they cut the prices of their older systems. 3rd party still have more of a reason to put their games on older systems (large userbase). Its going to take a much longer time for people to move onto these next systems, not to mention the economy still sucks.

FYI, 3DS was being sold for alot of profit at $250. It cost around $110 or so to make and those them out. The price cut actually brought it down to a more reasonable price, obviously, but sometimes people will find more value than there actually is based off of price. The same idea goes for iPad. Those things are pretty useless compared to tablets with a PC OS(I know it has more apps, but it can't do as much based of iOS).The Wii U on the other hand, is being sold face value. If they cut the price when it's value is being determined in the market, it will never be able to ground itself and make an impact. Perhaps it sounds like I'm BSing, but 3DS was a situation where they actually could chanhe the price, because they were overcharging for it.

@IxnayontheCKWii U is still "beefy". Besides, 3DS is still going up against 1 "beefy" system, and it's still selling better.PS Vita can perform better on paper, but with the difference between games on the system, and games on the system that actually do it justice just isn't there in comparison to 3DS.

wii u can maybe out sell ps4 at xmas just because there will be shortage. now how many people here really own a wii u? it makes me angry to have bought a new console just for Nintendo to tell me they messed up and the games will be late. it needs a price drop and it will probably happen in november

@Meaty-cheeky I think you may be a tad bit harsh regarding the wii u but overall I agree with your thoughts. For many families, cost is a huge factor and if the choice is between the wii u and the 3ds I think the 3ds wins in terms of versatility for home and travel needs. Also, i think the wii u needs more time to establish its base. I believe next year the sales will start picking up because by then more people will have bought a 3ds and people will start considering the wii u plus it will have way more games by then. You made some great points

If Nintendo wants sales to jump next year, besides, Mario Kart, etc make a true console Pokemon. I'm not a fan of the series but it is a huge seller.The Wii U is always online, you could realistically trade and battle with friends online. Instead of just special events at shows there could be special events online for rare Pokemon. Early buyers (within 3 months say) could have access to something cool like all the starter pokemon in the whole series that you cannot trade with later buyers. (Maybe paid dlc the next year)

Once the original games engine is done they could easily release sequels within the Wii U lifespan.

My biggest concern over the Wii U is that it is facing some stiff competition with an already pitiful reputation. Largescale consumer interest would've been hard enough to win over if the Wii U was being launched on even ground with the Xbone and PS4, but now it has a reputation amongst most third parties as an incompetent platform for this coming generation. Now, I'm not saying it'll stay that way; I really don't think it will, but it's gonna have to take something very special to get the game industry to respect the Wii U again and more importantly remove any doubt of it being "next gen". While the 3DS may have faced some similar problems, it didn't have any massive, potentially crippling, competition like the Wii U does. The smartphone game market may have an impact on handheld sales, but it's never been recognized as a direct alternative to the 3DS and Sony hasn't ever had as big a foothold in the handheld market as Nintendo.

Nintendo's projections are reasonable. God only knows how many Wii U's will be sold between November 2013 to April 2014 - Sonic Lost World, Mario 3D, Sochi Olympics, Wii Fit U, Wii Party U, DKCR: TP, Wind Waker HD. 8 Millions sales at least right there.

@SetupDisk Not sure. I think Nintendo knows what it's doing. Pokemon sells handhelds, they need Pokemon to be that valuable for the 3DS. Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong can sell Wii U. And that's their plan which I approve of.

The only reason the 3DS sold was because of the price cut and GENERAL INTEREST in the handheld. Then it got games.

Glasses free 3D? That was something totally new and never done before. It was interesting. Also it was easy to explain the product to the masses. The name itself was a no brainer. You knew what to expect and what you were getting.

Wii U is a system that tried mixing two concepts and failed. Dual screen and tablet. Both things aren't new. Quite old actually. Also the Wii U doesnt have games that show off these concepts in a new exciting way. Heck, Nintendo themselves don't even put in effort for touch screen integration. A hud on ur controller isnt anything to brag about and is not impressive. The name for the console makes no sense either, it causes confusion.

Its sad that Nintendo THEMSELVES cant even explain their own console to people.

Its sad that they never knew after 5 years of HD how long it takes to develop hd games.

Its sad that nintendo said all these things about their console and can't even deliver on them.

Its sad that nintendo doesnt show pro controller support. No point in even selling it if a good majority of your games wont support the damn thing.

Its sad that BARELY ANY of your games support online. Nintendo online is a thing. Hop on it. The whole family living room scene is becoming non existent. Smartphones are taking over. Online is a HUGE part if people's lives now.

Its sad that you refuse to fire or hire people. We need new young blood.

Its sad, that I spent 350 on a wii u when I could have saved it for a ps4 which is 50 dollars more, has actual launch games, third party support, an existsent online ecosystem & has better specs

@OptimusG Nintendo does show pro controller support. It is on many of the games coming out if I remember correctly. Online is supported where needed, I don't feel as if Nintendo games benefit all that much from online because most of them are just a lot better with a group of actual friends rather than a group of random people who will kick and scream at you for not agreeing with their opinions.

Not only that you take issue with their refusal to FIRE People, they never said anything about not hiring and considering people like Audrey Drake who worked for IGN recently got hired at Nintendo for localization...your argument is invalid.

You seriously take issue with a company that refuses to get rid of people's jobs for short term financial benefit and instead favoring not to do that and keep morale high within the company. It was a smart move as Nintendo is not Sony or Microsoft who sacrifice everything for short term profit but long term failure.

And don't get me started on your comments about the PS4, first of all a Wii U is actually much cheaper than a PS4 because you are taking the delux version of it and comparing it to the standard version. Not only that the PS4's actual price would be around $500(not sure what it is in Euros) after you buy the console, a game, Playstation plus to access online, and tax. The third party support is the same as it has always been and it will be on the PC and Xbox so that isn't unique to PS. Online users for both PS and Xbox are numerous however the community is utter crap and doesn't have shred of friendliness in them that you often will find on Miiverse. Not to mention "Specs" is a lame point pushed forward by Sony that really is only good for people who care about cinematic driven games rather than games driven by their actual GAMEPLAY. Most of the best selling consoles have never been the top in specs because it didn't matter what the specs were, the games mattered. The Wii and PS2 for example sold the best out of their respective generations.

Oh and let me read off the list of Playstation 4 LAUNCH titles and compare how many are interesting compared to what the Wii U will have by the time of the PS/Xbox Launch.Non Interesting: Battlefield, Cod, DC Universe, Driveclub, Fifa, Just dance, Killzone, Knack, Lego Marvel, Madden, NBA 2k14, NBA Live 14, Skylanders, Warframe, and Watch Dogs.Semi-interesting: Assassin's creed and only because I've been with the series for so long, although after Brotherhood it started going downhill.

Most of these are uninteresting because of their bland take on an overdone game-type, First Person shooter and/or "Dark" and "Gritty" as well as being more of a movie than a game, while cinematic sequences are nice they shouldn't be what makes a video GAME good. If you had to put it into recent terms games should lean towards Bioshock Infinite where the story is minimal and optional through voxxiphones and short black and white minute long films, making the story take a backseat to game-play instead of The Last of Us which is essentially a movie with a few gameplay sequences.

Interesting/good games(unique) on the Wii U that will be out by that time/already are out.Monster hunter 3 Ultimate, Pikmin 3, The wonderful 101, Wind waker HD(on here because it is a masterpiece of a game), Donkey Kong Tropical freeze, New Super Mario bros Wii U+Luigi U, and Sonic Lost world.And that is only the Exclusives, quite a lot of what you find in PS and Xbox can be found on each other or on the always better PC version.

The 3DS sold because it had GOOD GAMES. I suggest with the amount of negative things you say about Nintendo you should get off a Nintendo centric site and save us all time. Go somewhere else.

it's all about the games...at this coffee shop I'm at right now, people are going crazy espousing the gaming experience from "The Last of Us" on the PS3. I know that Super Mario 3D, Mario Kart and Zelda HD Wind Walker later this year will be great on the Wii U but they're not going to affect people who are being treated to games like "The Last of Us". Come one Nintendo! Quit playing it safe with your games.

@meltendo "The Last of Us" is a highly overrated "Game" as it is essentially a movie. While this is good for cinematic storytelling it really doesn't give a game experience. And even then The Last of Us wasn't really a risk, it plays off of the popularity of zombie apocalypses and focuses on being much like the Walking Dead. It was almost guaranteed to succeed because it is the most overdone story ever with set things that happen.

Criticizing Nintendo for "playing it safe" with their games is really unfair considering they take huge as heck risks when it comes to consoles. The Wii was like this and so is the Wii U. And not to mention they aren't really playing it safe anyway, Xenoblade Chronicles for example was a good game but kind of a cult hit. Now we have X which looks good but probably is going to have similar success.

Oh and Wonderful 101 (funded by nintendo made by plat games) is a completely new game series and generally looks fun.